Spanish Inventions You Might Not Expect

Spanish Inventions You Might Not Expect

by Catherine McCulloch

Believe it or not, there's more to Spain than the stereotypical tapas, flamenco and cheap holidays. The country is also responsible for a world of inventions, some that you might not have initially expected. Here's a list of some of the most surprising contributions the country has made to society.

You can also thank the Spanish for inventing cigarettes, thought to be created by the country's street beggars who could easily find pieces of waste paper to wrap their tobacco in.

Perhaps the most famous and world-changing of all alleged Spanish inventions is the acoustic guitar. In fact, many people refer to the traditional acoustic guitar as the Spanish guitar. The shape and form of the modern classical guitar is an Iberian invention and is credited to Antonio Torres in around 1850. Torres took steps to increase the size of the guitar body and made changes to the top bracing pattern to create the model we know today. His actions made huge improvements to the tone, volume and projection of the instrument and his measures remain pretty much unchanged today.

Sherry also happens to be Spanish. Loved by UK grannies and problem drinkers alike, the idea of sherry originating from anywhere but Blighty is a bit hard to swallow. In actual fact, sherry comes from the Spanish town of Jerez, close to Cadiz. The English pronunciation actually derives from the old Arabic word for the town, Sherish. A far cry from the beverage we drink in the UK, traditional Spanish sherry is absolutely delicious and is the perfect accompaniment to tapas.

Although there's debate as to who actually created Coca Cola (some say it was an Atlanta-based chemist), Spain claim to have founded the fizzy drink. However, Valencian Juan Mica claims that his great-great uncle invented the drink, then called Nuez de Kola Coca. He supposedly took the drink to the United States, won a prize for his brew in Philadelphia and then sold the recipe. The claim is still unresolved. That said, there are lots of photographs from the time of a Spanish drink going by the old name. Although which came first, Coca Cola or Nuez de Kola Coca, we are likely to never find out for definite.



Catherine McCulloch is a writer who loves to travel to Spain in particular. <a href="http://www.mytravel.com/costa-dorada-holidays">Click here</a> to see some of our offers and fantastic deals from <a href="http://www.mytravel.com/">MyTravel</a>.

---------------------------------------------------
You are receiving this because you signed up for it on 2012-04-22 from IP 114.79.13.119
To fine-tune your selection of which articles to receive, just login here:

http://www.uniquearticlewizard.com/bloggers/

using your username:

To unsubscribe please use the following link:

http://www.uniquearticlewizard.com/unsubscribe.php?mail=wisatanusantara3.alankoesumah@blogger.com&code=d48035f43fb1db56998290ec5232b52c
---------------------------------------------------